THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, obviously I've got General Dave Petraeus
and our Ambassador Ryan Crocker with us. We spent most of the day
together. It's been a good day. We met with virtually all the top
Iraqi leaders. Might have missed one or two who were out of town, but
we caught most of them, including Prime Minister Maliki and as well as
President Talabani, Vice President Hashemi and al-Mehdi.

During the course of the meetings I emphasized the importance of
making progress on the issues before us, not only on the security issues
but also on the political issues that are pending before the Iraqi
government. I was impressed with the commitment on the part of the
Iraqis to succeed on these tasks, to work together to solve these
issues.

I also met with their top military leadership. I think it's
important for all of us to remember that the sacrifices that the Iraqis
have made in this conflict have been substantial. I look forward
tomorrow to have any opportunity to spend some time with our U.S.
military forces.

And with that, we'd be happy to respond to questions. And the
first question goes to Tom Raum.

QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, did you hear anything today that
makes you believe that the benchmarks that have been set up are getting
met any quicker than earlier? And if so, is there any possible
(inaudible) tie the performance at meeting these benchmarks to getting
funds from Congress, as some Democrats have suggested?

And General Petraeus, you said a few weeks ago in
Washington that regardless of how things went, it would take an enormous
commitment of time and effort on the part of the United States before
things are stabilized. Do you still believe that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm not sure that was consistent with the
rules, Tom, but what the heck. You got the first one, so we'll go with
it.

With respect to the question of benchmarks, we still believe that
it's important that funding for the supplemental for operations here in
Iraq not contain conditions that limits either the flexibility of our
commanders on the ground in Iraq or interferes with the President's
constitutional prerogatives as Commander-in-Chief, which is the general
principle that we've adhered to and it's one of the reasons the
President vetoed the original bill.

I do sense today a - I think a greater awareness on the part of the
Iraqi officials I talked to of the importance of their working together
to resolve these issues in a timely fashion. I think they recognize
that it's in their interest as well as in our interest that they make
progress on the political front just as we deal with the security
issues.

GENERAL PETRAEUS: Well, Tom, I do think it will require a
substantial commitment to succeed in this endeavor and I think one of
the interesting messages that the Vice President heard today from the
Iraqi leaders and from the Iraqi military leadership in particular was
their absolute determination to carry forward in the face of very
significant terrorist activity.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Todd Gillman, Dallas Morning News.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I'm wondering how you
feel the security situation here is doing compared to the last time you
were in Iraq, and if you can give any serious assurances to the American
public that things will, in fact, get better anytime soon.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I have to rely on reports like everybody
else does, obviously. I've spent today here basically in our embassy
and the military headquarters in the green zone, so I can't speak from
personal experience in terms of what's going on all across Iraq.

I can say that based on the conversations I've had today, and most
of those conversations were with Iraqis and Iraqi leaders - some of them
in the government, some of them not - that they believe the situation
has gotten better. They cite specifically the statistics on sectarian
violence, Sunni-on-Shia and Shia-on-Sunni violence that they think is
down fairly dramatically.

I think everybody recognizes there still are serious security
problems, security threats; no question about it.

But the impression I got from talking with them - and this includes
their military as well as political leadership - is that they do believe
we are making progress, but we've got a long way to go.

GENERAL PETRAEUS: And they were all - all of them actually singled
out Anbar province and the really dramatic shift in the Sunni population
in Anbar province against al Qaeda Iraq in recent months as a heartening
sign and actually as an example, that they are encouraging, be followed
in other areas with similar populations.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Olivier Knox, AFP.

QUESTION: Thank you very much. Ambassador Crocker said on the
plane coming here that one of the messages you wanted to deliver was
that any talk of a two-month summer recess by the Iraqi parliament was
just unimaginable. Did you convey that, in fact, today to the leaders
that you met and what was the response?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'd like to preserve to some extent on these
trips the confidentiality, if you will, of my conversations with our
host. I did make it clear that we believe it's very important to move
on the issues before us in a timely fashion and that any undue delay
would be difficult to explain and that we hoped they would approach
these issues with all deliberate dispatch, if I can put it in those
terms. I think they're somewhat sympathetic to our concerns.

Bret Baier, Fox News.

QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, following on that if I could first,
are you confident that the Iraqis now will not take this two-month break
from your conversations?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I can't make that prediction
Bret. That's a sovereign issue for them, just as our congressional
schedule is a sovereign issue for the United States. But I think they
understand the importance of getting on with the business that's before
them.

QUESTION: And if I could, General Petraeus, you're going to give a
progress report in September. A lot of people in Congress are now
pinning that as something to look to to pin funds to. Would that harm
your ability to fight this war on the ground?

GENERAL PETRAEUS: Well, first of all, let me just say that that's
going to be a joint endeavor. This is going to be the Ambassador and
myself offering that assessment to our leaders in Washington and to the
congressional leadership.

We see that as presenting an assessment at that time. I have
offered that it will take several months after all the forces are on the
ground, which will be around the mid-June time frame, for us to see the
impact of those forces. The Iraqis are also continuing to build their
forces. That's part of both the deliberate effort that's been underway
for some time and their own surge, if you will. Some 9,000 Iraqi
soldiers graduate from training this month alone, just to give you an
example.

So we see that as a time where we'll have had, we think, enough of
a period to assess the joint security effort and the progress in the
political and economic arena. And I'll let the Ambassador perhaps add
to that as well.

QUESTION: But as far as funding and tying it to that is the
question.

AMBASSADOR CROCKER: Well, certainly from the political-economic
side, just as is the case with the military, our people need the tools
to get the job done. And the tools in this case are money. We really
need to get the money out here so we can start making a difference on
the streets.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Ken Fireman, Bloomberg.

QUESTION: Thank you, sir. You said you were impressed by the
responses that you heard from Prime Minister Maliki and his colleagues.
Did they offer any specific commitments, particularly time commitments,
in moving forward on some of the specific measures that you and other
American officials have talked about; namely, hydrocarbon law,
de-Baathification, provincial elections and constitutional reform?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I believe that Prime Minister Maliki plans an
address to the parliament this week on many of these issues - [cough]
excuse me - and, of course, it's a political process that depends upon
action by their legislative body. And but as I say, I do believe that
there is a greater sense of urgency now than I'd seen previously.

QUESTION: But no specific time commitments?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's difficult to do with our own Congress,
let alone somebody else's.